Andrew Luck vs. Landry Jones: Who Is College Football's Top Quarterback?

Who will be the No. 1 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft?

Yes, I know it seems a tad jump-the-gunish to try to forecast next year’s draft already, but that hasn’t stopped NFL and college football fans alike from asking the same question.

Who is the next No. 1 guy?

Even though that question can’t be answered for another 10 months, there already seems to be an almost universal answer.

Stanford QB Andrew Luck has become the face of college football, as both a Heisman favorite and the top player on every draft junkie's big board.

Luck’s decision to return to Palo Alto for his junior season surprised almost everybody and it gave Cardinal fans a reason to celebrate. However, so far, it hasn’t exactly been an easy offseason for the Stanford signal caller.

Coach Jim Harbaugh, who spent the last three seasons building the Stanford program into a conference contender, left for a job with the San Francisco 49ers right after the season-ending victory in the Orange Bowl.

To top it off, Luck also had to watch his father Oliver, the athletic director at West Virginia, get slammed by nearly every sports media outlet in America for his handling of the coaching situation at West Virginia.

Luck will enter this season with heavy expectations weighing down on his shoulder pads, much like we saw last year with Jake Locker.

Like Luck, Locker was the cover boy of college football last summer and many projected him to be the No. 1 pick of this past draft.

Although he ended up being taken by the Tennessee Titans with the No. 8 pick, it was obvious that Locker felt the pressure of being the No. 1 guy during his final season at Washington.

Locker turned out to be one of the many recent quarterbacks like Matt Leinart and Brady Quinn who failed to make good on their senior hype.

You can’t put any of those three in Luck’s class though.

He’s probably the best quarterback prospect who's come along in at least a decade, but we have to wait and see if he can stay focused this season with all the pressure swirling around him.

Luck will have plenty of challengers like North Carolina DE Quinton Coples and Oklahoma State WR Justin Blackmon, who will have top pick aspirations of their own.

The Oklahoma quarterback will be the leader of the nation’s No. 1 ranked team and he’ll have plenty of chances to shine and show onlookers that he’s worthy of being selected at the top of next year’s draft.

If Jones guides the Sooners to a national championship and takes home the Heisman Trophy on the way, he could become a viable challenger to Luck’s media appointed "Best Quarterback in College Football" title.

The 6’4’’, 230-pound junior led the country in completions last season and he put up monster numbers in Oklahoma’s passer friendly offense

Jones completed 65 percent of 617 pass attempts for over 4,700 yards and 38 TDs.

It’s hard to compare the 2010 production of Jones and Luck because the two quarterbacks played in such different types of offenses. But Luck certainly held his own in the numbers department, completing 70 percent of 372 pass attempts for over 3,300 yards and 32 TDs.

Both junior passers already have a BCS bowl game victory under their belt, and it appears as if they’re ready to square off for supremacy this season.

Although Arizona’s Nick Foles, San Diego State’s Ryan Lindley and Oklahoma State’s Brandon Weeden are all formidable pro prospects, there is no definitive star senior quarterback this year.

That means the battle for the No. 1 pick could come down to Luck and Jones, the two top underclassmen quarterbacks in the country.

Both have a lot offer as NFL prospects.

Luck is just so polished it’s almost not fair.

He’s got every single trait you’re looking for and it almost seems that he was constructed by the football gods to be an elite quarterback prospect.

Luck thrived in Jim Harbaugh’s West Coast attack, showing that he could make all the throws the NFL scouts want to see.

There’s definitely a reason why so many have raved about his ability.

He’s put up the performances to totally justify his newfound acclaim.

Jones, on the other hand, plays with a much more loose gunslinger mentality.

He’s like Jay Cutler without the cannon arm.

Jones hasn’t shown the same type of overall polish as Luck, but he was consistent and ultra productive in his first full season as a true starter, and he’s got the skill set that will keep scouts studying every one of his throws the whole entire season.

Going into the season, Luck has to be the odds on favorite to be the No. 1 pick next year, but as we’ve seen in the past, nothing is certain when it comes to the NFL draft.

Jones is a worthy adversary for Luck, and it should be interesting to see if he can perform as expected and gain the following and the support needed to ultimately unseat him and solidify his status as the top quarterback in all of college football.

Let the battle begin.